1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to orthopedic supports, and particularly to a wheeled mobile support for the knee portion of a bent disabled leg of a standing patient.
2. Background and Description of Prior Art
Various known support devices to aid mobility of a patient with a disabled lower leg have generally taken the form of a wheel chair, optionally with an ancillary adjustable leg support, or crutches. Though both such supports are useful to fulfill their particular purposes, either poses inherent problems for a patient with only one disabled leg. The instant support seeks to solve such problems.
Wheel chairs are widely used for the transport of disabled patients of all types, but generally require a patient to be seated for locomotion, whether the chair is moved by the patient himself, by an associated motor or by a third party. This restricts a patient's ability to perform other tasks, such as work activities or ordinary household chores, while the patient is yet able to perform such functions were it not for the method and nature of his support.
Most wheel chairs also are relatively large, massive structures which are difficult to propel and maneuver and often by reason of such nature, cannot access areas that are restricted in space or crowded with objects or people. Many wheel chairs provide ancillary devices that support a leg or a portion of it in an elevated attitude to aid user comfort and sometimes avoid pain that would result were the leg not elevated. These ancillary devices only exacerbate access problems, while at the same time further limiting potential activities of a patient by reason of the postural attitudes required for their use.
My invention aids the resolution of these problems inherent in wheel chairs by providing a mobile device that supports only one disabled leg, while allowing a user to stand on the other leg, use that non-disabled leg to aid in moving the support, and use arms and upper body for other tasks. By reason of this structure, my support device may also be of substantially smaller size than a wheel chair and of a more mobile and maneuverable nature to allow a user to access areas that could not be accessed by a traditional wheel chair.
Crutches in various forms also have been widely used to aid support and locomotion of disabled patients especially when disability involves only one leg. Though mobility and access with crutches are less restricted than with wheel chairs, crutches also present inherent problems. They must be supported in some fashion by a user for locomotion, generally with the hands and commonly for effective support they must be used in pairs to require the use of both hands of a user. This requirement either substantially limits or prevents most other patient activities that require the use of the hands to prevent effective work activity by persons using crutches.
Normally crutches are partially supported by other parts of a user's body than his hands, commonly under the armpits or about the forearms, and this type of support and the posturing resulting by reason of it, not only restrict other activities but also often tend to create pain or irritation in a user's body by reason of crutch use. More importantly, however, the crutches provide no support for an injured lower leg to maintain it in an elevated position and this often may cause pain in an injured leg and give rise to other adverse physiological reactions such as excessive swelling, lack of circulation and the like.
My support in contradistinction provides a structure that supports a bent lower leg about the knee while maintaining the leg therebelow in an elevated position. My support also allows operation without use of either hand if desired, while yet not inhibiting normal use and motion of a non-injured leg or other non-disabled body parts.
Various surgical support devices in the nature of wheeled standards on occasion have been used as supports for disabled lower limbs. These devices, however, have not been widely used as they generally are cumbersome, ineffective and possess many of the disabilities of both a wheel chair and crutches. To use such devices for locomotion generally requires either control and support by the hands of a user or mechanical interconnection to some other type of locomotion device and in either case, they are as cumbersome, ineffective and restrictive as traditional-supports. In general, standard type supports also will not support an injured limb in an elevated position. These features distinguish my invention from the standard type support.
My support provides a plurality of caster wheels arrayed about the periphery of a circular base structure for support and locomotion. To further aid directional motion and steerage of my support, one caster wheel structure is not rotatable perpendicularly to the wheel journalling axle to allow that wheel to direct the support in a particular course. Another species provides an adjustably depending pedestal to aid positional maintenance of my support on a supporting surface when desired. These features further distinguish my support from a wheel chair which provides two wheel steerage by support wheels and crutches which provide no wheeled support or steerage at all.
My invention lies not in any one of these features individually, but rather in the synergistic combination of all of the structures of my invention that give rise to the functions necessarily flowing therefrom, as herein specified and claimed.